On Fri, 29 Jul 2005, Jason Coombs wrote: <cutting to the chase>
> Now, if RC4 had never been used to create a product and had been kept as > a trade secret, and that secret had been published, then it would not > have become, automatically, an unencumbered algorithm that could be used > by anyone with impunity. There being no way other than theft of trade > secret for a third party to come to know the algorithm, had a court > order been obtained to halt the spread of the secret the algorithm > itself could very well have been kept as protectable intellectual > property until such time as the company that enjoyed a commercial > advantage through preservation of their RC4 trade secret had concluded > the public distribution of a product that somebody else could have > reverse engineered. The problem here is essentially one of mass distribution. There are now *millions* of copies of these "secrets" in general circulation. Nobody can assert with a straight face that anything about Lynn's presentation is not completely and totally within the public view - and irretrievably so. -- Yours, J.A. Terranson [EMAIL PROTECTED] 0xBD4A95BF "A stock broker is someone who handles your money until its all gone." Diana Hubbard (of Scientology fame) _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/
